Considering Emerald in late November

[Rolandtgs]

Hi All;

 

My wife and I have only cruised one previous time. We did the Western Caribbean in 2008 on the Carnival Glory. We are now considering a late november Eastern side on the Emerald.

I have been reading reviews and the reactions to the food seem varied, and the reviews on the entertainment all seem to be fairly poor.

We loved the food on Glory, and managed to keep busy most times while aboard.

Will we be dissapointed with the food on Emerald?

 

I managed to talk my wife into the zip line and cave tubing in Belize during our last cruise and it was one of this highlights. Any fun suggestions for St. Martin, St. Thomas, and Grand Turk?

 

We are also considering HAL and Nor cruise lines, or even going on Carnival Liberty. Too many choices...

 

Thanks all

[raydon]

Princess is not Carnival, BUT we love anytime dining on Princess and the entertainment is scheduled so you may do several things nightly. Food is subjective, but we believe the service and the atmosphere on Princess is better. All depends on you!

 

Donna

[sunsetbeachgal]

Hi,

 

It has been years since I have sailed on Carnival, so can't give a comparison, but we have sailed Emerald's 10 day Carribbean cruises two times and really enjoyed her. Lots of things to do, very good food and quite an elegantly appointed ship. We found the entertainment to be quite good also.

 

Whatever you choose, enjoy!

[plantlady104]

Don't get wrapped up regarding reviews and comments. Each cruise line board has both good and bad. We pick our cruises based upon destination, ports, cost, and type of ship-including cruise line. Each cruiser has their view on what is important to them. I think picking different cruise lines give variety and fun to a cruise, but others will reply that they like to stay with one favorite line. That being said, if you liked Carnival food etc, then can not imagine that you would not like Princess, RC or HAL, unless you really want the most party environment of Carnival. Personally our family thought Carnival food was the worst of all our cruises. We are now planning for the Ruby in Nov.

[Times Prince]

Hi All;

 

My wife and I have only cruised one previous time. We did the Western Caribbean in 2008 on the Carnival Glory. We are now considering a late november Eastern side on the Emerald.

I have been reading reviews and the reactions to the food seem varied, and the reviews on the entertainment all seem to be fairly poor.

We loved the food on Glory, and managed to keep busy most times while aboard.

Will we be dissapointed with the food on Emerald?

 

Thanks all

We've sailed the Emerald Princess twice now in the Eastern Caribbean. And we would sail her again. She is a great ship with all the amenities, good layout, and has had one of the best Cruise Directors around for the past two years.

 

Food was great, and we discovered the Cafe Caribe to the aft of the Horizon court for dinner. The food there was, in our opinion, equal or better than that in the dining room, and offered a variety of quality offerings (not just normal cafeteria fare) including premade salads, soups, multiple entrees, desserts, and a very nice setting for the tables. We encountered personal service there that was on par (or better than) the main dining room.

 

Our cabin stewards on the Emerald Princess have been the best we've encountered, and were both thorough and responsive. They really catered to us.

 

If your experience is anything like ours have been, then you will definitely not be disappointed with the Emerald Princess and the Eastern Caribbean. :)

[Gerbz]

Hi!

 

We were on the Emerald Princess August 2008 for our Grand Mediterranean cruise. We absolutely LOVED it. I thought the food was fabulous and on many nights, I could not resist having more than one dessert!! :rolleyes:

 

At the time we cruised, the ship was the newest one of the fleet and was absolutely gorgeous. My favorite is the "Movies Under the Stars". Each night we would catch the 10:30pm show. We would show up early and grab great seats, get comfortable and wait for crew members to come around with popcorn, cookies & milk, and even pizza!!

 

I can't wait to sail on another Princess ship and for ALL the Princess shps to have Movies Under the Stars!! :p

 

Anyhow, whatever you choose, I do hope you have a GREAT cruise! :)

[Rolandtgs]

Excellent. Thanks for the info. Makes me feel better about this cruise.

 

The movies under the stars is a big attraction for us. We both love movies and it seems more like our style than the stage shows.

 

Now to decide on final date, pick a nice balcony room and decide what to do for excursions

 

Thanks Again

[rcacace]

If you're counting on seeing the latest first run movies on MUTS just be aware that the ones they do show are usually already released on DVD and you won't see anything new. Occasionally they'll have one that hasn't been released yet.

[Treven]

Personally I was very pleased with the Emerald. I didn't take in any of their production shows as I was too busy taking in the "street enterttainment" that they had in the Piazza.

I ate most dinners in the Caribe buffet area; quite frankly I didn't find the food in the dining rooms to be any better.

[CHARGERFAN83]

You can always go on the Ruby November 24th. Its a 10 day Southern/Eastern. We are already booked and the ports look fantastic.

[wblynch]

We are booked for November 22 on the Emerald.

 

This will be our first Princess cruise and we anticipate having a great time.

 

I know it will be different than Royal Caribbean or Holland-America so I'm not going to let minor differences diminish our experience, rather we celebrate them.

 

Vive La Variete !!

 

.

[klbermudez]

I just booked the Emerald Princess last night for the November 1st sailing. We have usually done NCL in the past but I'm looking forward to trying a different cruise line - this will be the first cruising experience for our adult children.. it's our Christmas gift to them.

[sunshinesxm]

We have just finished our Transatlantic crossing on the Emerald, it is our first crossing

on a Princess and we loved it. So go for it and have a great time!

 

We are trying to find our new friends we made on this Voyage. They are from Toronto

(Bill and Ellie (Alli) and were located on Dolphin Deck aft.(mini-suite) second seating Boticelli diningroom ,table 118. We are from St. Maarten and left the ship in Rotterdam.

Hope to locate them, as we did not see them on the last day of the trip to exchange

e-mails.

[Rockymountainsparky]

You'll love the Emerald. Bon voyage.

[OCruisers]

Hi! We've been on both Carnival Glory (3 years ago)and Emerald Princess (this past January).

 

Just our opinion but we enjoyed everything about Emerald Princess MORE! :)

 

It's fun to give different ships and cruise lines a try. Honestly feel you'll be happy with your decision for an Emerald Princess cruise! :cool:

[caribbeanboy]

There is only one thing. The Emerald is going the first week of December to dry dock...so if you take late November, make sure it's not the last cruise before dry dock. You read a lot about the first week before and after dry dock that a lot of work is going on etc and sometimes it causes inconvenience.

[wblynch]

There is only one thing. The Emerald is going the first week of December to dry dock...so if you take late November, make sure it's not the last cruise before dry dock. You read a lot about the first week before and after dry dock that a lot of work is going on etc and sometimes it causes inconvenience.

 

Thanks for the heads-up !

[caribbeanboy]

Last cruise before drydock: Nov 29

First after : Dec 20

[Rolandtgs]

uh oh.

 

Caribbeanboy - I read your post right after reading that brutal story of the pre-drydock voyage.

We were planning on that Nov 29 trip. Thanks for the heads up. I am going to have to look for something else. Not taking the chance of having to deal with that mess.

[caribbeanboy]

We have just finished our Transatlantic crossing on the Emerald, it is our first crossing

on a Princess and we loved it. So go for it and have a great time!

 

We are trying to find our new friends we made on this Voyage. They are from Toronto

(Bill and Ellie (Alli) and were located on Dolphin Deck aft.(mini-suite) second seating Boticelli diningroom ,table 118. We are from St. Maarten and left the ship in Rotterdam.

Hope to locate them, as we did not see them on the last day of the trip to exchange

e-mails.

 

Cool to see other people from the Netherlands Antilles here on CC!